Electric spot heater for crankcase oil



y 14, 1957 E. s. 612A ELECTRIC SPOT HEATER FOR CRANKCASE OIL Filed May 25, 1955 F I G.

FIG 2 INVENTOR. EDWIN STANLEY GIZ ATTORNEYS United States Patent 1 2,792,488 ELECTRIC SPOT HEATER FOR CRANKCASE 01L Edwin Stanley Giza, Chicopee, Mass. Application May 25, 1955, Serial No. 510,896 1 Claim. (Cl. 219-45) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in electric heaters for motor vehicle crankcases.

One object of the invention is to provide an inexpensive heater which can, be placed on the floor of any unheated garage LOT :1 motor vehicle to drive over and straddle and which will heat the oil in the crankcase of the vehicle s.owly and uniformly for easy motor starting and quick normal operation.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simple but eflicient convection and radiation heater which is safe to use and which can be operated over long periods of time and for overnight unattended use with no greater expense than that of burning an ordinary household lamp bulb.

Other objects, features and advantages will be apparent from the accompanying drawing and from the following description and claim.

In the drawing,

Fig. l is a side elevation view with parts broken away of an automobile in a garage having a heater constructed and arranged in accordance with the present invention; and

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the heater shown in Fig. 1.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, the heater has a cylindrical housing 15 which may be nothing more than an ordinary tin can. In the example shown in the drawing, a can six inches high, approximately five inches in diameter, and one-thirty second gauge tin was used but these dimensions may be varied according to the motor vehicle with which the heater is to be used.

Housing 15 has a bottom 16 and an open upper end 17. Spaced air openings 18 are provided in the housing 15 adjacent to and spaced from the bottom 16. For the usual passenger automobile oil heater the air openings 18 may be one-quarter inch diameter holes spaced on one inch centers around the housing. An electric cord opening 19 is also provided in the housing 15 and may be placed approximately five-eighths of an inch from the bottom of the can or housing.

Inside the housing on the bottom 16 is mounted an ordinary porcelain socket receptacle 20, spaced bolts 21 extending through the bottom 16 and the receptacle with nuts 22 disposed on the flange of the receptacle. An insulator disc 23 of cardboard or other insulating material fits over the nuts 22 and the flange of the receptacle around the receptacle.

Mounted on the insulator disc 23 is a reflector disk 24 made of aluminum or other reflective material, the reflector disk 24 encircling the socket of the receptacle and being spaced from and parallel to the bottom of the housing.

An electric cord 25 having a plug 26 and a winding of friction tape 27 or the like in the area of opening 19' connects the receptacle 20 (terminals as at 28) with a suitable source of electricity. The tape 27 prevents strain on the terminals if the unit is pulled by the cord.

A hollow frusto-conical reflector 30 of aluminum or other reflective material is inverted and mounted in the housing. The reflector 30 has dependent spaced legs 31 forming a tripod at the smaller lower end which rest on the reflector disk 24 and hold the reflector 30 in the housing with the smaller lower end of the reflector adjacent the housing air openings and spaced from the bottom of the housing.

A retainer ring 32 removably fits in the open upper end of the housing over the larger open upper end of 2,792,488 Patented May 14, 1957 the reflector 30 to hold the reflector 30 in the housing. Retainer ring 32 is also made of aluminum or other reflective material.

In the reflector 30 and mounted in the receptacle 20 is a lamp bulb 33 which may be an ordinary household electric light bulb which for the usual automobile can be a sixty watt or one hundred watt bulb or a one hundred and twenty-five watt infra-red bulb, all depending on the size of the housing and reflector.

The use of the heater is as follows: the heater is placed on the floor of a garage and plugged in so that an automobile or other motor vehicle 34 can drive over it with the front wheels straddling the heater and the crankcase disposed above the heater. Preferably the bottom of the crankcase or oil pan is cleaned of dirt and oil accumulation. The heater is disposed about two inches at the front of the car 34 from the oil plug of the crankcase. If the clearance between the oil pan or crankcase and the top of the heater is one inch as it will be in most cases with a six inch tall can or housing, a sixty watt electric light bulb may be used in the receptacle. If the clearance is three inches, a one hundred and twenty-five watt bulb may be used. In a very cold climate, with a clearance of two or three inches, a one hundred and twenty-five watt infra-red bulb will operate satisfactorily.

The heat generated by the lamp causes convection currents to flow through the reflector and around the lamp and out the top of the can or housing so as to be directed on the crankcase. In addition the rays from the iamp heat the crankcase by radiation. Cool air is drawn into the housing through the air openings at the base and heated in the reflector by the lamp. This not only provides convection heating for the crankcase but also cools the lamp. The reflector 30 extends only to the retainer ring 32 so that the heat is concentrated and spot lighted on the bottom of the oil pan and not dissipated to either side.

I claim:

An electric convection and radiation heater for oil in a motor vehicle crankcase comprising a cylindrical housing of a height to rest on a garage floor and fit beneath and be spaced from the crankcase of a vehicle when the vehicle is driven over the housing with the front wheels straddling the housing, said housing having an open upper end and a closed bottom with spaced air openings encircling the housing adjacent the bottom, a lamp holding receptacle with a connecting cord mounted in the housing at the bottom, a lamp in the receptacle, a reflector disk mounted in the housing on the receptacle spaced from and parallel to the bottom of the housing, an inverted frusto-conical reflector in the housing around the lamp with dependent spaced legs at the smaller lower end resting on the reflector disk and holding the lower end of the inverted frusto-conical reflector adjacent the housing air openings, and a retainer ring having a reflective surface removably mounted in the housing at the upper open end to hold the inverted frusto-conical reflector in the housing and to spot concentrate the heat given off by the reflector.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,693,950 Hauser Dec. 4, 1928 1,723,331 Cutler Aug. 6, 1929 1,887,782 Peterson Nov. 15, 1932 2,509,460 Transue May 30, 1950 2,515,659 Michal July 18, 1950 2,528,774 Oberholtz et al. Nov. 7, 1950 OTHER REFERENCES Popular Mechanics, Dec. 1944, page 81. 

